Would you like fries with that?

Alexandra Marshall I 5 November 2024 Spectator Australia

Last week, I was interviewed by Bill Mitchell as part of the run-up to the US election.

It always seems to surprise American commentators how much interest Australians have in US domestic politics. This, I would argue, is a consequence of being the nation that leads the Free World.

(His excellent interview is here.)

The same thing used to happen with British colonies at the height of the Empire, where the goings-on inside Westminster directly influenced the Parliaments of far-off lands.

When Britain decided to expend its wealth and power to end the slave trade, the ramifications were felt in every corner of the globe.

Similarly, what America does next will set the mood for the political era. It will not be impossible for other Western democracies to defy America’s lead, but if the presidency sparks a global conflict, allows collectivist empires to seize control of trade, or chooses to silence free speech on the largest social media platforms – this will cause issues for Australia.

There is a reason Elon Musk is standing beside Donald Trump, and it is not only because he is tired of fighting Californian bureaucrats over his rocket launches. He knows that this election has consequences.

The world is watching nervously for three reasons.

The first is global security. Several competing nations have re-arranged the geopolitical board in preparation for a large, inter-nation conflict. They have secured crucial seaports from the first two world wars, they have built railways between countries to transport fuel and arms, they have used scientific environmental research as a cover to construct military bases in Antarctica, and they have built complex dams that hold their neighbours hostage with the threat of drought and flood. Keeping the peace is no longer about paper treaties and the blood money paid by our light-weight leaders, it will come down to geography, the same as every other war in history.

The second is the climate change movement which has sequestered (and has promised) trillions of dollars in public money to private companies, international bureaucracies, government departments, public service workers, scientific organisations, and research groups who produce experts that spend their time shilling for more money. If it is not already, climate change will soon be the biggest criminal racket in human history whose sole aim is the transfer of wealth from citizens to the world’s largest companies. These corporations have developed a parasitic relationship with government who, in turn, use claims of a fictional apocalypse to reshape political institutions in favour of more power. It is difficult to know where business begins and government ends. This is fascism. Eco-fascism. Donald Trump has made it clear that he will veer away from this path, not all at once, but if elected he will construct a hatch through which democracy can escape.

The third issue is one that will impact Australia first and whose influence will linger the longest. Free speech. Social media is the most powerful political tool of the modern age. Platforms that speak directly to the people of the world, and where the people of the world speak back, can be manipulated. Communist nations prefer not to play the game at all, opting to firewall the concept of a public forum. Increasingly we are seeing our governments dabble in this approach, either by forcing social media platforms to self-censor under the threat of fines, or by creating eSafety Commissions to spawn nuisance lawsuits.

Covid gave politicians a reason to fear free speech. When Silicon Valley was under the thumb of left-wing governments, propaganda flourished. These platforms amplified government messaging, nurtured public fear deliberately instigated by health officials, and spread misinformation from Big Pharma. They accepted advertising money and took on a conflict of interest which eventually resulted in victims being erased from the conversation. When Elon Musk bought Twitter and sacked its Orwellian censors, the story of Covid collapsed overnight. Once the truth started leaking out on Twitter it became impossible for the mainstream press to ignore these stories without permanently corrupting its reputation. Elon Musk has doubled-down on this, tweaking his platform into a factory churning out citizen journalists who sit beyond the control of politicians. This is an existential threat to the establishment class.

Climate change is social media’s next victim. It will pick at every crack. It will take down every company that absconds with public money. It will publish photographs of every rare earths mine and every child sold into slavery to shovel the minerals that go into making a solar panel. It will pin the apocalypse dates to the headlines every time they fail to manifest. Every broken promise and every lie told in service of eco-fascism will be thrown back in the faces of politicians, often posted directly under their election campaigns.

This is an intolerable situation for a political class that resents the truth and finds democracy an inconvenience.

It is for this reason that Australia nervously watches on as America goes to the polls.

Most of what happens in an American election is noise and theatre. Plenty of what the candidates say is nonsense designed to rile up a crowd. The underlying policies, however, could change the future of our country – and the world – forever.

Author: Alexandra Marshall